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Immigration →

• 06 Aug 2024

What the World Could Learn from America's Immigration Backlash—100 Years Ago

Immigration concerns are shaping elections around the world, but these fears have been around for centuries. Mining data from US history, Marco Tabellini explores how immigration has actually changed communities, and offers advice for policymakers trying to move forward.

• 06 Jun 2024
• Research & Ideas

How Younger Immigrants Gain an Edge in American Business

Immigrants often struggle to acquire both higher education and good jobs after migrating to a new country. A study by William Kerr finds that the age they arrive is key, with the teen years being ideal for achieving future success.

• 11 Apr 2024
• In Practice

Why Progress on Immigration Might Soften Labor Pains

Long-term labor shortages continue to stoke debates about immigration policy in the United States. We asked Harvard Business School faculty members to discuss what's at stake for companies facing talent needs, and the potential scenarios on the horizon.

• 08 May 2023

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs

When public anxiety about immigration surges, Black, Asian, and Hispanic inventors have a harder time raising funds for new ideas on Kickstarter, says research by William Kerr. What can platforms do to confront bias in entrepreneurial finance?

• 14 Feb 2023

Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis

Changing political views and economic forces have threatened Sweden's image of liberal stability. Is it the end of the Scandinavian business-welfare model as we know it? In a case study, Debora Spar examines recent shifts in Sweden and what they mean for the country's future.

• 01 Nov 2022
• What Do You Think?

Why Aren’t Business Leaders More Vocal About Immigration Policy?

Immigration fuels the American economy, feeds the talent pool, and can directly affect company performance. And yet few executives and entrepreneurs have waded into the policy dialogue, says James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 30 Mar 2021
• Working Paper Summaries

Whose Job Is It Anyway? Co-Ethnic Hiring in New US Ventures

The impact of immigration has been particularly sharp in entrepreneurship, yet there is remarkably little evidence about how immigration in the workplace connects to the creation and scaling of new firms. The economic consequences of greater workplace and entrepreneurial diversity deserve closer attention.

• 11 Jan 2021

The Political Effects of Immigration: Culture or Economics?

This paper reviews and explains the growing literature focused on the political effects of immigration, and highlights fruitful avenues for future research. When compared to potential labor market competition and other economic forces, broadly defined cultural factors have a stronger political and social impact.

• 03 Nov 2020

An Executive Order Worth $100 Billion: The Impact of an Immigration Ban’s Announcement on Fortune 500 Firms’ Valuation

President Trump’s executive order restricting entry of temporary foreign workers to the United States negatively affected the valuation of 471 publicly traded Fortune 500 firms by an estimated $100 billion. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 15 Jun 2020

The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the United States

Researchers test the relationship between historical immigration to the United States and political ideology today.

• 11 May 2020

Immigration Policies Threaten American Competitiveness

At this time of crisis, America risks signaling to global innovators and entrepreneurs that they have no future here, says William R. Kerr. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 21 Apr 2020

Changing In-group Boundaries: The Role of New Immigrant Waves in the US

How do new immigrants affect natives’ views of other minority groups? This work studies the evolution of group boundaries in the United States and indicates that whites living in states receiving more Mexican immigrants recategorize blacks as in-group members, because of the inflow of a new, “affectively” more distant group.

• 06 Apr 2020

Where Do Workers Go When the Robots Arrive?

Marco Tabellini and colleagues investigate where workers go after losing their jobs to automation and Chinese imports. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 17 Feb 2020

The Impact of Technology and Trade on Migration: Evidence from the US

Labor mobility can re-equilibrate local labor markets after an economic shock. Both robot adoption and Chinese import competition between 1990 and 2015 caused large declines in manufacturing employment across US local labor markets (commuting zones, CZs). However, only robots were associated with a decline in CZ population, which resulted from reduced in-migration rather than by increased out-migration.

• 01 Jan 2020

Why Not Open America's Doors to All the World’s Talent?

SUMMING UP: The H-1B visa program is exploited by some employers to replace high-paid talent, but that doesn't mean foreign workers should be shut out of working in the United States, according to many of James Heskett's readers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 19 Jun 2019

Migrant Inventors and the Technological Advantage of Nations

This study provides robust econometric evidence for how immigrant inventors shape the innovation dynamics of their receiving countries. Countries receiving inventors from other nations that specialize in patenting particular technologies are more likely to have a significant increase in patent applications of the same technology.

• 08 Jun 2019

The Gift of Global Talent: Innovation Policy and the Economy

High-skilled workers in today’s knowledge-based economy are arguably the most important resource to the success of businesses, regions, and industries. This chapter pulls from Kerr’s book The Gift of Global Talent to examine the migration dynamics of high-skilled individuals. He argues that improving our knowledge of high-skilled migration can lead to better policy decisions.

• 07 Feb 2019

Immigrant Networking and Collaboration: Survey Evidence from CIC

This study compares United States-born and immigrant entrepreneurs’ use of networking opportunities provided by CIC, the former Cambridge Innovation Center. Immigrants clearly take more advantage of networking opportunities at CIC, especially around the exchange of advice. It remains to be seen whether this generates long-term performance advantages for immigrants.

• 01 Nov 2018

Forecasting Airport Transfer Passenger Flow Using Real-Time Data and Machine Learning

Passengers arriving at international hubs often endure delays, especially at immigration and security. This study of London’s Heathrow Airport develops a system to provide real-time information about transfer passengers’ journeys through the airport to better serve passengers, airlines, and their employees. It shows how advanced machine learning could be accessible to managers.

• 01 Oct 2018

Is the US Losing its Ability to Attract Highly Skilled Migrant Workers?

As debates sharpen on the benefits and drawbacks of migrant labor, William R. Kerr's new book explores why global talent flows matter to national economic development and security. Book excerpt and author interview. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• Current Projects
• Research MA

Welcome to The Immigration Lab The Immigration Lab, policy research

The Immigration Lab is directed by Dr. Ernesto Castañeda, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences at American University in Washington, DC. 

The Immigration Lab conducts research on all things migration including: immigration (settling in), emigration (leaving), transnationalism, integration, categorical inequality, health disparities, demographics, social mobility, racism and exclusion, exiles and refugees, social movements and contentious politics, race and immigration history, ethnicity and space. 

We are not limited to any geographic area, disciplinary approach, or methodology. Instead, we seek to engage research across disciplines and in a collaborative process at all levels. We work closely with all the students in American University’s MA program in Sociology Research and Practice (SORP). 

We actively engage undergraduate and graduate students in research, thus building their research and writing skills. Lab members have co-authored scholarly articles, op-ed pieces, newsletter contributions, blog posts, and more. Several current members of the lab are going on to become fully-funded PhD students at prestigious universities. 

We are also working on several larger projects that will culminate with books, op-eds, online panels and webinars to educate the greater public on issues of importance surrounding immigration.

Research & Publications

The Immigration Lab is directed by Dr. Ernesto Castañeda, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology at American University in Washington, DC.

The Immigration Lab conducts research on all things migration including transnationalism, integration, health disparities, demographics, social mobility, racism and exclusion, social movement and contentious politics, ethnicity, and space. 

The immigration Lab works closely with the Master's Program on Social Research and Practice (SORP), analyzing immigration data, trends, and policies at American University in Washington, DC.

Immigration Lab Research Showcase Spring 2022

Short summary of research presentations.

Hand-in-Hand with Afro-Mexicans: Co-Creating Recognition and Racial Equity

Afro-Mexican population has lived without proper recognition from the Mexican State. This project aims to support Afro-Mexicans’ path to tell their story on their own terms, to visibilize their identities, to strengthen their sociopolitical participation, and to reduce racist and discriminatory conducts against them. 

Políticas públicas de migración a casi un año de la presidencia de Biden

Analisis sobre las politicas de inmigración de Mexico y Estados Unidos cerca del primer aniversario de la Presidencia de Joe Biden. of research presentations.

Immigration and Interculturalism in European and U.S. Cities Meeting Highlights

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The Importance of School Climate for Immigrant Students

A positive school climate, where students feel safe, supported, and have a strong sense of belonging, is critical for academic success and healthy development. However, current school climate measures often fail to consider the unique experiences of immigrant origin students.

Moving Stories

(Im)migration is an experience that almost everyone in the United States shares somewhere in their family history. Whether it is recent or took place generations ago; by choice or through forced migration; for adventure, to seek a better life, or for refuge—except for native peoples—migration is at the center of nearly every family history. Reflecting upon our moving stories, listening to one another explore, relating to those experiences, and learning from those narratives are powerful ways to find common ground. This is ever more important as immigrant-origin students are experiencing polarized and stereotype-ridden public narratives about their (and their families’) place in our nation. Finding ways to connect, listen and engage around narratives of migration provides a crucial opportunity for immigrant-origin students to feel supported in their social, emotional, academic and civic growth and for their peers to explore their own families’ migration histories, their misperceptions around migration, and to find common ground.

Longitudinal Student Immigrant Adaptation Study

This large scale, interdisciplinary, longitudinal, and comparative study, illuminated the relationships between immigration, family life and education by addressing the various ways in which schools and other institutions are changing the lives of newcomer immigrant youth. This data set has been the foundation of many publications (including Harvard University Press’ Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society) as well as numerous scholarly articles and dissertations.

UndocuScholars Project

This national survey focused on the college experiences of undergraduate UndocuScholar students. Its goals were to expand knowledge about the range of UndocuScholars’ experiences in order to challenge false assumptions and damaging misperceptions, and to use this knowledge to better inform on-campus practice and services as well as local and national public policy.

Get Involved

Contact us at ImmigrationInitiative@harvard.edu

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Key facts about U.S. immigration policies and Biden’s proposed changes

Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has acted on a number of fronts to reverse Trump-era restrictions on immigration to the United States. The steps include plans to boost refugee admissions , preserving deportation relief for unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and not enforcing the “ public charge ” rule that denies green cards to immigrants who might use public benefits like Medicaid.

Biden has also lifted restrictions established early in the coronavirus pandemic that drastically reduced the number of visas issued to immigrants. The number of people who received a green card declined from about 240,000 in the second quarter of the 2020 fiscal year (January to March) to about 79,000 in the third quarter (April to June). By comparison, in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, nearly 266,000 people received a green card.

Biden’s biggest immigration proposal to date would allow more new immigrants into the U.S. while giving millions of unauthorized immigrants who are already in the country a pathway to legal status. The expansive legislation would create an eight-year path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants , update the existing family-based immigration system, revise employment-based visa rules and increase the number of diversity visas . By contrast, President Donald Trump’s administration sought to restrict legal immigration in a variety of ways, including through legislation that would have overhauled the nation’s legal immigration system by sharply reducing family-based immigration.

The Biden administration has proposed legislation that would create new ways for immigrants to legally enter the United States. The bill would also create a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants living in the country.

To better understand the existing U.S. immigration system, we analyzed the most recent data available on federal immigration programs. This includes admission categories for green card recipients and the types of temporary employment visas available to immigrant workers. We also examined temporary permissions granted to some immigrants to live and work in the country through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs.

This analysis relies on data from various sources within the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of State, Federal Register announcements and public statements from the White House.

The Senate is considering several immigration provisions in a spending bill, the Build Back Better Act , that the House passed in November 2021. While passage of the bill is uncertain – as is the inclusion of immigration reforms in the bill’s final version – the legislation would make about 7 million unauthorized immigrants eligible to apply for protection from deportation, work permits and driver’s licenses.

Amid a record number of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden reinstated in December 2021 a Trump-era policy that requires those who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border and seek asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed. Biden had earlier ended the Migration Protection Protocols , or “Remain in Mexico” policy, and then restarted it after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lawsuit by Texas and Missouri that challenged the program’s closure. Asylum seekers do not receive a legal status that allows them to live and work in the U.S. until the claim is approved.

Overall, more than 35 million lawful immigrants live in the U.S.; most are American citizens. Many live and work in the country after being granted lawful permanent residence, while others receive temporary visas available to students and workers. In addition, roughly 1 million unauthorized immigrants have temporary permission to live and work in the U.S. through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs.

Here are key details about existing U.S. immigration programs, as well as Biden’s proposed changes to them:

Family-based immigration

In fiscal 2019, nearly 710,000 people received lawful permanent residence in the U.S. through family sponsorship. The program allows someone to receive a green card if they already have a spouse, child, sibling or parent living in the country with U.S. citizenship or, in some cases, a green card. Immigrants from countries with large numbers of applicants often wait for years to receive a green card because a single country can account for no more than 7% of all green cards issued annually.

Biden’s proposal would expand access to family-based green cards in a variety of ways, such as by increasing per-country caps and clearing application backlogs. Today, family-based immigration – referred to by some as “ chain migration ” – is the most common way people gain green cards, in recent years accounting for about two-thirds of the more than 1 million people who receive green cards annually.

Refugee admissions

The U.S. admitted only 11,411 refugees in fiscal year 2021, the lowest number since Congress passed the 1980 Refugee Act for those fleeing persecution in their home countries. The low number of admissions came even after the Biden administration raised the maximum number of refugees the nation could admit to 62,500 in fiscal 2021 . Biden has increased the refugee cap to 125,000 for fiscal 2022, which started on Oct. 1, 2021.

The low number of admissions in recent years is due in part to the ongoing pandemic. The U.S. admitted only about 12,000 refugees in fiscal 2020 after the country suspended admissions during the coronavirus outbreak . This was down from nearly 54,000 in fiscal 2017 and far below the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted in fiscal 2016, the last full fiscal year of the Obama administration.

The recent decline in refugee admissions also reflects policy decisions made by the Trump administration before the pandemic. Trump capped refugee admissions in fiscal 2020 at 18,000 , the lowest total since Congress created the modern refugee program in 1980.

Employment-based green cards

In fiscal 2019, the U.S. government awarded more than 139,000 employment-based green cards to foreign workers and their families. The Biden administration’s proposed legislation could boost the number of employment-based green cards, which are capped at about 140,000 per year . The proposal would allow the use of unused visa slots from previous years and allow spouses and children of employment-based visa holders to receive green cards without counting them against the annual cap. These measures could help clear the large backlog of applicants. The proposed legislation also would eliminate the per-country cap that prevents immigrants from any single country to account for more than 7% of green cards issued each year.

Diversity visas

Each year, about 50,000 people receive green cards through the U.S. diversity visa program , also known as the visa lottery. Since the program began in 1995, more than 1 million immigrants have received green cards through the lottery, which seeks to diversify the U.S. immigrant population by granting visas to underrepresented nations. Citizens of countries with the most legal immigrant arrivals in recent years – such as Mexico, Canada, China and India – are not eligible to apply.

The Biden administration has proposed legislation to increase the annual total to 80,000 diversity visas. Trump had sought to eliminate the program .

In fiscal 2019, more than 188,000 high-skilled foreign workers received H-1B visas . H-1B visas accounted for 22% of all temporary visas for employment issued in 2019. This trailed only the H-2A visa for agricultural workers, which accounted for nearly a quarter (24%) of temporary visas. In all, nearly 2 million H-1B visas were issued from fiscal years 2007 to 2019.

The Biden administration is expected to review policies that led to increased denial rate s of H-1B visa applications under the Trump administration. In addition, Biden has delayed implementing a rule put in place by Trump that sought to prioritize the H-1B visa selection process based on wages, which would have raised the wages of H-1B recipients overall. Biden also proposed legislation to provide permanent work permits to spouses of H-1B visa holders. By contrast, the Trump administration had sought to restrict these permits. The Trump administration also created an electronic registration system that led to a record number of applicants for fiscal 2021.

Temporary permissions

A relatively small number of unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. under unusual circumstances have received temporary legal permission to stay in the country. One key distinction for this group of immigrants is that, despite having received permission to live in the U.S., most don’t have a path to gain lawful permanent residence. The following two programs are examples of this:

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

About 636,000 unauthorized immigrants had temporary work permits and protection from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, as of Dec. 31, 2020. One of Biden’s first actions as president was to direct the federal government to take steps to preserve the program , which Trump had tried to end before the Supreme Court allowed it to remain in place . DACA recipients, sometimes called “Dreamers,” would be among the undocumented immigrants to have a path to U.S. citizenship under Biden’s immigration bill. Senators have also proposed separate legislation that would do the same.

Temporary Protected Status

Overall, it is estimated that more than 700,000 immigrants from 12 countries currently have or are eligible for a reprieve from deportation under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS , a federal program that gives time-limited permission for some immigrants from certain countries to work and live in the U.S. The program covers those who fled designated nations because of war, hurricanes, earthquakes or other extraordinary conditions that could make it dangerous for them to live there.

The estimated total number of immigrants is based on those currently registered, in addition to those estimated to be eligible from Myanmar – also called Burma – and Venezuela.

Immigrants from Venezuela and Myanmar are newly eligible for TPS under changes made after Biden took office in January 2021 by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the program. The government must periodically renew TPS benefits or they will expire. The department extended benefits into 2022 and beyond for eligible immigrants from nine nations: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In addition, the Biden administration expanded eligibility for immigrants from Haiti based on recent turmoil.

Biden and congressional Democrats have proposed granting citizenship to certain immigrants who receive TPS benefits. Under Biden’s large immigration bill, TPS recipients who meet certain conditions could apply immediately for green cards that let them become lawful permanent residents. The proposal would allow TPS holders who meet certain conditions to apply for citizenship three years after receiving a green card, which is two years earlier than usual for green-card holders. By contrast, the Trump administration had sought to end TPS for nearly all beneficiaries, but was blocked from doing so by a series of lawsuits.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published March 22, 2021.

• Citizenship
• Family Reunification
• High-Skilled Immigration
• Immigration & Migration
• Legal Immigration
• Political Issues
• Refugees & Asylum Seekers
• Visas & Employment

Jens Manuel Krogstad is a senior writer and editor at Pew Research Center .

Ana Gonzalez-Barrera is a former senior researcher focusing on Hispanics, immigration and demographics at Pew Research Center .

How Temporary Protected Status has expanded under the Biden administration

After declining early in the covid-19 outbreak, immigrant naturalizations in the u.s. are rising again, most americans are critical of government’s handling of situation at u.s.-mexico border, most latinos say u.s. immigration system needs big changes, naturalized citizens make up record one-in-ten u.s. eligible voters in 2020, most popular.

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Migration, Immigration, Diasporas, and Refugees

Us immigration statistics and data, international migration data, migration research projects, reports & documents and organizations, overviews of the literature, related subject headings in the catalog.

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U.S. Census Bureau Migration and Geographic Mobility Statistics - Information about surveys/programs that collect information about internal/domestic migration and estimates of international migration, including:

• The American Community Survey  (includes place of birth, year of entry, residence one year ago, citizenship status, county-to-county migration flows ) 
• Net Migration by Decade, 1950-2020 provides estimates of net migration broken down by age, race, Hispanic origin, and sex for all U.S. counties and states each decade from 1950 to 2020. See also Demographic Characteristics of the Population of the United States, 1930-1950: County-Level
• Current Population Survey  Monthly survey conducted by Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census bureau.  Create data tables on various topics, including  foreign born  workers. Special topical modules of the survey have included immigration. A  chart  of those supplements indicates the topics, the months and years they were administered, and whether or not the data are available. Microdata can be obtained via several  sources .
• Population Estimates  (see Geographic Mobility tables)
• Decennial Census  (see 2000 and earlier) 
• Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)  - Domestic migration and length of time at current residence.

Older immigration statistics by country

• Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition immigrants by country of birth, 1941-1997 and immigrants by country of last residence, 1820-1997 . Under Population>international migration. Data in Excel.
• 1978-2001 : Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service scanned pdf but has by country breakdowns not always available in Historical Statistics of the US . Also in print either at Firestone (F) or Stokes (SPR) JV6461 .S8 or in ReCAP .
• 1933-1986 : Annual report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service , scanned pdf but has by country breakdowns not always available in Historical Statistics of the US . Most of the run is also in HathiTrust as well as in print at Stokes JV6414 .A6 .
• 1892-1933 The Annual Report of the INS was formed from these two predecessors: Bureau of Naturalization, Annual report of the Commissioner of Naturalization to the Secretary of Labor 1892-1912 and 1912-1933 ; also in print various years . Bureau of Immigration, Annual report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration to the Secretary... 1892-1932 ; also in print various years .
• DHS Immigration Estimates, 1990-present The Department of Homeland Security produces estimates of the population of legal permanent residents (2002-present), unauthorized immigrants (1990-2018), and resident nonimmigrants (2004-2019) in the U.S.. They also provide data on immigration enforcement actions (2004-2020) .
• 1965-1993 : scanned pdf of the report . Also in print in ReCAP , 1974-2001.
• U.S. Refugee Arrivals The State Department's Refugee Processing Center (RPC) runs the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS) to process and track the movement of refugees from various countries around the world to the U.S. for resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Site provides reports in Excel and PDF of arrivals by major world region, initial settlement in U.S. states by nationality (also separately for Special Immigrant Visa [SIV] arrivals of Iraqi and Afghan nationals), and arrivals by nationality and religion, FY2010-present. Older data for some of these is available in the Refugee Resettlement Program, Report to Congress and the Proposed U.S. Refugee Admissions and Allocations for Fiscal Year [FY] , which can be found in Statistical Insight and the ASI microfiche set.
• TRAC Immigration Tools Provides access to data on immigration court caseloads, backlogs, processing times, and outcomes; new deportation proceedings and outcomes; asylum filings, backlogs, and outcomes; ICE detentions, removals, and facilities; immigration judges; and juvenile cases. Information on criminal enforcement of immigration law including statutes used is also available. Based upon analyses by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University of court and agency records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
• Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window Gathers the most requested tables of statistics from INS and related agencies on immigration and refugees/displaced persons (see above). Issued annually since 1878, the tables can all be downloaded as Excel spreadsheets.
• Social Explorer This link opens in a new window Allows user to visually analyze and understand the demography of the United States through the use of interactive maps and data reports from 1790 to the present. The key term for immigrants in the census is foreign born , including naturalized U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (immigrants), temporary migrants (such as foreign students), humanitarian migrants (such as refugees and asylees), and unauthorized migrants.
• Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics Compilation of statistical tables, including those about the foreign born population, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
• Pew Research Center Charts and statistics about U.S. immigrants. 1980+

Note: Governments vary in the way they collect statistics on international and internal migrants and many do not count the number of individuals who emigrate from the country. The sources below provide comparative figures calculated by the issuing organization. For more detailed information, it may be helpful to examine publications from i ndividual country statistical offices.  In addition,  Stokes Library  houses a print collection of international census publications and vital statistics. They may be found by searching the  Library catalog  with the following Subject headings: (country name) -- Census or (country name) -- Statistics, Vital (for example, Argentina--Census or Nigeria--Statistics, Vital ). To find microdata about immigration available through Princeton University Libraries, see  Data and Statistical Services . 

• Migration Research Hub Created by IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network), a network of 63 member institutes and over 1300 scholars from all over the world, the Hub is a portal to migration research with 3 main components: 1) Research Database indexes over 100,000 items, including journal articles, book chapters, reports, projects, datasets, and policy briefs; 2) Taxonomy of Migration Studies, which categorizes every item on the Hub into a detailed classification under four main branches: Topics, Disciplines, Methods, and Geographies; and 3) an international database of migration experts.
• UN International Migration Stock Estimates The dataset presents estimates of international migrant by age, sex, origin, and destination. Estimates are presented for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 and are available for all countries and areas of the world. The estimates are based on official statistics on the foreign-born or the foreign population. Data in Excel. Abel & Cohen (2022) provide a simplified, tidy version of the data .
• UN International Migration Flows The dataset contains annual data on the flows of international migrants as recorded by the countries of destination. The data presents both inflows and outflows according to the place of birth, citizenship or place of previous / next residence both for foreigners and nationals. Data available from 45 countries, 1980+, in Excel. See also Abel, Guy (2019). Bilateral international migration flow estimates for 200 countries for origin-destination migration flow estimates as well as by type of move (outward, return and transit).
• UN Demographic Yearbook International migration characteristics by country.
• monthly displacement figures by district/town, 2014–present;
• monthly data on migrants who have gone missing or died with region, location coordinates, number dead/missing/survived; source URL, source quality, 2014–present;
• Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative provides an anonymized, individual level dataset on victims of trafficking, 2002-present, which codes for age, gender, type of exploitation, means of control, and recruiter type.
• International Migration Institute DEMIG Datasets The Determinants of International Migration (DEMIG) project produced several datasets: 1) The DEMIG C2C (country-to-country) database contains bilateral migration flow data for 34 reporting countries and from up to 236 countries over the 1946–2011 period; 2) the DEMIG POLICY dataset, which tracks more than 6,500 migration policy changes enacted by 45 countries, 1945-2013; 3) DEMIG TOTAL, which reports immigration, emigration, and net migration flows for up to 161 countries covering various periods from the early 1800s to 2011; and 4) DEMIG VISA, which tracks annual bilateral travel visa requirements for 237 nationalities in 214 countries over the 1973–2013 period.
• National and Subnational Global Net Migration, 2000-2019 Scholarly project collected, gap-filled, and harmonized national level (ADM0) birth and death rate datasets for 200+ countries and sub-national data for births and deaths (covering 100+ countries and 2000+ administrative areas (ADM1: state/province and ADM2: communal/county). They calculate net migration estimates by comparing this "natural" population change with reported population changes. Data is provided in gridded geospatial form, but the masterData.rds file has the birth, death, and net migration rates by administrative level in tabular form. Data can be explored visually at https://wdrg.aalto.fi/global-net-migration-explorer/ .
• OECD International Migration Statistics Includes the International Migration Database and labor market outcomes of immigrants. Flows and stocks of the total immigrant population and immigrant labor force in OECD countries, together with data on acquisition of nationality, 1975+. Downloadable to .csv.
• OECD Indicators of Immigrant Integration Broad international comparison across all EU and OECD countries of the outcomes for immigrants and their children based on 68 indicators. See also: Indicators of Immigrant Integration: Settling In .
• UNHCR Population Statistics Database Contains data about UNHCR's populations of concern from 1951-present. Can filter by location of residence, origin, and status ( refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returned refugees, returned IDPs, stateless people ). Data downloadable in .csv.
• Internal displacement associated with conflict and generalized violence (2003-present)
• Displacement associated with sudden-onset natural hazard-related disasters (2008-present)
• Migration Policy Institute MPI's datahub has maps and data on migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers as well as on global remittances.
• Humanitarian Data Exchange Hub and platform for NGOs to post humanitarian data. Includes more than 6000 datasets and provides infographics and data visualizations as well.
• World Bank Global Bilateral Migration Database Global matrices of bilateral migrant stocks spanning the period 1960-2000, disaggregated by gender and based primarily on the foreign-born concept.
• Eurostat Migration and Asylum Statistics European Union country statistics and articles about citizenship, asylum, first and second generation immigrants, migrant integration, migration by area and region, residence permits.
• International Labour Organization (ILO) Labour Migration Statistics Includes international migration stocks, nationals abroad, international migration flow.

Migration Policy

In addition to the following, see also the DEMIG Policy dataset listed above.

• Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) Project of the Migration Policy Group to measure policies across 8 issue areas to integrate migrants in all EU member states and several other countries across 5 continents (52 in all). 2007-2019.
• Immigration Policy: 1783-2010 Measures the restrictiveness of immigration policy for low-skill immigration in 19 countries from the 19th century through to today. The measure is comparable across countries and across time. In addition, the sub-measures used to create the immigration policy variables are included as well.
• Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) Provides a set of sophisticated quantitative indices to measure immigration policies in all OECD countries for the time period 1980-2010.
• EUI Global Citizenship Observatory Database Provides several datasets with wide geographic and temporal coverage of laws and policy related to provisions for acquiring citizenship and electoral rights by immigrants. Includes the Global Nationality Laws Database, GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset and CITLAW Indicators, Conditions for Electoral Rights Database and Electoral Law Indicators.
• Mexican Migration Project (1982-) A yearly study of Mexican migrants that randomly samples households in communities throughout Mexico. After gathering social, demographic, and economic information on the household and its members, interviewers collect basic information on each person's first and last trip to the United States. From household heads, they compile a year-by-year history of United States migration and collect information about the last trip northward, focusing on employment, earnings, and use of United States social services. More than 25,000 households have been interviewed across 24 states in Mexico, with individual-level data on more than 160,000 people.
• Latin American Migration Project (1998-) Aims to advance our understanding of the complex processes of international migration and immigration to the United States through surveys of migrant households. LAMP employs the ethnosurvey approach, which combines the tecniques of ethnographic fieldwork and representative survey sampling to gather qualitative as well as quantitative data. Countries covered include Puerto Rico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Haiti, Peru, Guatemala, and Ecuador. Data in SAS, SPSS, and Stata.
• Migrations between Africa and Europe Project (2008-2010) Collected data on migration flows between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. MAFE conducted household surveys in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Senegal, as well as individual biographical questionnaires in Africa (DR Congo, Ghana, Senegal) and in Europe (Congolese in Belgium and the UK; Ghanaians in the Netherlands and the UK; Senegalese in France, Italy and Spain). Data were collected both in origin and destination countries, providing data on migrants abroad at the time of the surveys and also on returnees and non-migrants interviewed in origin countries. The individual questionnaire collects full retrospective histories of individual's housing, study and work trajectories, family formation, property ownership and migrant networks.
• Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (1992-2006) Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) was designed to study the adaptation process of the immigrant second generation. CILS followed a sample of over 5,200 children of immigrants from early adolescence to early adulthood, interviewing them at three key points of their life cycle: in junior high school, at average age 14, just prior to high school graduation (or dropping out of school), at average age 17, at the beginning of their work careers (or continuing schooling), at average age 24. Each sample wave retrieved approximately 85 percent of the preceding one. The third wave produced data on 3,564 respondents or 68 percent of the original sample.
• New Immigrant Survey (2003-2009) The New Immigrant Survey (NIS) is a nationally representative multi-cohort longitudinal study of new legal immigrants and their children to the United States based on nationally representative samples of the administrative records, compiled by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), pertaining to immigrants newly admitted to permanent residence. It asks about immigrant lifestyles pre- and post-immigration, family networks, schooling, health, employment, income and transfers, housing, and assimiliation.
• Comparative Immigrant Organization Project (2006) The Comparative Immigrant Organizations Project (CIOP) studied the effects of transnational and domestic organizations on the political incorporation of Latin American (Mexican, Colombian, Dominican) immigrants in the United States by examining the views of leaders of immigrant organizations toward citizenship acquisition and political participation in the United States as well as the actual activities of these organizations in civic life and politics, both in the United States and abroad. The dataset contains detailed measures of the extent of economic, political, and socio-cultural transnationalism, activities in the U.S. and sending countries, and characteristics of both the organizations and their members. Data in both Stata and SPSS formats.
• Center for Migration and Development Data Archive Repository of datasets conducted by researchers at the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University.

Policy Commons preserves and provides access to more than 30 million pages of curated policy reports and briefs, analyses, working papers, books, case studies, tables, charts, media, and statistical publications created by 25,000 policy organizations (NGOs, IGOs, foundations, think tanks, government agencies, etc.) from around the world. Platform provides multiple filters and advanced searching operators.

• Trends & Policy: U.S. Immigration This link opens in a new window Provides a curated primary source collection of U.S. government documents on immigration and border security 1790-present, including government policy, history, law, and news. Includes text of U.S. immigration laws and other content from the legislative branch, reports and statistics from the executive and judicial branches, and news content for additional information and context. Statistics from many reports have been converted into CSV and Excel tables and users can export the statistics or create and export charts directly in the product for use in assignments and research.
• Migration Policy Institute MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. Of particular note on the Institute's web site are the U.S. Immigration Policy Program and the datahub .
• Pew Research Center Nonpartisan think tank that provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world, including migration , U.S. immigration , and Hispanics in the U.S .
• Urban Institute: Program on Immigrants and Immigration Among the research interests at the Urban Institute are US immigration policy and the role immigrants play in the economy, the challenges immigrants face in different communities, and immigrants’ access to the social safety net.
• Center for Immigration Studies Independent research center focused on immigration policy in the US and advocating a "low-immigration, pro-immigrant" vision.
• International Organization for Migration (IOM) United Nations affiliated intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees and migrant workers.
• Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Non-profit organization focusing on national health issues including immigrant health policy.
• National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) U. S. State immigration laws and legislation, and sanctuary policies. Includes an Immigration Database
• Migration Policy Group Brussels-based migration think tank in the areas of integration, migration and anti-discrimination. Publishes research , manages the European Web Site on Integration , and offers the Migration Integration Poicy Index .
• PAIS: Public Affairs Information Service This link opens in a new window Citations to articles, books, reports, and select government documents on U.S. and international public policy issues. Includes policy briefs and reports from many think tanks and NGOs. more... less... 1968-1971 of the foreign language component is only available in print. (Trustees Reading Room) Z7164.A2P8

The following resources provide focused reviews of the scholarship and research relating to various aspects of migration, which can help you understand the context of your research question as well as identify sources for further exploration.

• Topical overviews of the field Good starting points for getting a sense of the field. This catalog search uses the keywords (immigration OR migration OR migrant OR refugee OR diaspora) as subjects and (handbook OR encyclopedia) in the title.

Here are some examples of what you might find:

Several subject headings exist to search in the catalog for works about immigration, migration, and immigrants.

• may be futher subdivided by topics like --government policy , --economic aspects , --history , --statistics
• may be subdivided by names of places where immigrants settle, e.g. immigrants--France  or by key topics like --education , --employment , --government policy , --political activity , or both, like immigrants--France--social conditions  
• Children of immigrants or  immigrant children or  women immigrants
• Undocumented immigrants or undocumented immigrant children  or children of undocumented immigrants and their host country  --United States
• Refugees and their host country --Germany
• Diasporas: nationality group and the place in which they live, e.g. Hungarians--Romania  or Chinese--Southeast Asia  or
• Migration, Internal and the country of interest --United States
• Return migration and the country of interest -- Mexico
• Forced migration  and the country of interest -- Russia (Federation)
• Deportation  and the country of interest --United States
• Migrant labor  or Migrant agricultural laborers  or Foreign workers
• Immigrants in literature  or Immigrants' writings
• Intercountry adoption  
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• Last Updated: Aug 7, 2024 1:48 PM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/migration

New immigration estimates help make sense of the pace of employment

Media inquiries, subscribe to the center for economic security and opportunity newsletter, wendy edelberg and wendy edelberg director - the hamilton project , senior fellow - economic studies tara watson tara watson director - center for economic security and opportunity , senior fellow - economic studies.

March 7, 2024

Key takeaways:

• This analysis considers the macroeconomic implications of recent estimates of immigration flows.
• Recent immigration flows are notably higher than previous projections. New numbers from the Congressional Budget Office suggest that 3.3 million net immigrants arrived in 2023 compared to the 1.0 million projected prior to the pandemic.
• Higher immigration rates mean that employment growth does not need to slow significantly to get the labor market to a sustainable pace: The authors estimate that the labor market in 2023 could accommodate employment growth of 160,000 to 230,000—versus previous projections of 60,000 to 130,000—without adding pressure to wages and price inflation.
• The uptick can also help to explain the surprising strength in consumer spending and overall economic growth since 2022.

In this analysis, we consider recent immigration flows and their potential macroeconomic implications. Interpreting the current labor market requires understanding recent immigration: how many people arrived and how they engaged in the economy. Recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggest much higher rates of recent immigration than were previously projected. In 2019, CBO projected that net immigration in 2023 would total 1.0 million people; Now, the agency estimates that net immigration last year was 3.3 million . Moreover, we estimate that CBO’s current immigration estimates suggest faster population and labor force growth in recent years than currently reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) using Census population estimates.  

Prior to the pandemic, the range of population and labor force participation projections from CBO, the BLS, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) suggested that sustainable employment growth (that which did not put unwelcome pressure on inflation) would be between 60,000 and 140,000 per month in 2022 and, as more people retired, fall to between 60,000 and 100,000 per month by 2024 (table 1). According to the Employment Situation Report from BLS, employment growth in 2023 averaged 255,000 per month, two to four times the pace that had been considered sustainable.   

Many observers took this as evidence that the labor market was much too tight and needed to soften significantly in order to get inflation down. But, using the new CBO estimates of net immigration released in January 2024, we estimate that the labor market in 2023 could have sustainably accommodated employment growth of 160,000 to 230,000. That is still below the actual monthly increases in employment in 2023, but far less so than previously estimated. Similarly, for 2024 we estimate sustainable employment growth will be between 160,000 and 200,000, approximately double the sustainable level that would have occurred in absence of the pickup in immigration according to the pre-pandemic projections from CBO, BLS, and SSA.   

Source: CBO 2019b; CBO 2020; BLS 2017; BLS 2019; SSA 2019; CBO 2022; CBO 2023. Note: Range of pre-pandemic estimates includes potential employment growth from CBO (2019) and CBO (2020) as well as projected employment from BLS (2017), BLS (2019), and SSA (2019), which are far enough from the date those projections were published that the employment growth reported here is interpreted to include only non-cyclical factors. To estimate SSA projections, we use the BLS (2019) baseline number in 2019 and SSA’s stated labor force growth rate of 0.8 annually from 2018 to 2028. To account for higher immigration than projected, the initial ranges are adjusted by the upward revision since 2019 to CBO’s estimates of net immigration in 2022 and 2023 and projected immigration for 2024.

The unexpectedly high level of immigration also explains some of the surprising strength in consumer spending and overall economic growth since 2022. Moreover, we expect immigration flows to further boost economic growth in 2024.  

Although we focus here on the near-term boost to the aggregate economy from greater immigration, the forces we describe are also relevant in the long term. The United States is facing a demographic challenge because of lower fertility rates and population aging. Recent Census projections make it clear that the growth of the U.S. population in coming decades will hinge critically on the level of immigration.  

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Wendy Edelberg, Tara Watson

December 7, 2022

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January 9, 2024

Jennifer Hunt

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Lauren Bauer, Eric Jensen, John Sabelhaus, and Louise Sheiner for their generous feedback. We thank Cameron Greene, Simon Hodson, and Olivia Howard for their excellent research assistance.

The Brookings Institution is financed through the support of a diverse array of foundations, corporations, governments, individuals, as well as an endowment. A list of donors can be found in our annual reports published online here . The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this report are solely those of its author(s) and are not influenced by any donation.

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William A. Galston

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Dany Bahar, Ian Seyal, Greg Wright

June 14, 2024

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• Issues and Controversies: Immigration Recent pro/con articles on immigration issues
• CQ Researcher: Immigrantion Overhaul See also sidebar on the right of the Immigration Overhaul article for additional related articles on the immigration issue.
• Immigration and Migration: In Context A two volume encyclopedia that provides readers with key data to understand the roots of the issues that make contemporary migration and immigration so contentious around the globe.
• Encyclopedia of American Immigration A three volume eEncyclopedia that covers the full depth and breadth of American immigration history—from the arrival of the early ancestors of Native Americans to a broad range of twenty-first century immigration issues.

Immigration is a complex issue that involves the law, the economy, and politics. You could concentrate on one issue and do in-depth research on that, or use several of the questions below to focus more generally on the topic of immigration.

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• Migration Policy Institute "The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide."
• Pew Hispanic Center "The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization that seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos’ growing impact on the nation. The Center does not take positions on policy issues."
• U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the government agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States."
• U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "ICE's primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration."
• U. S. Customs and Border Protection "CBP has a responsibility for securing the border and facilitating lawful international trade and travel while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws and regulations, including immigration and drug laws."
• MALDEF The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the nation's leading Latino civil rights organization, has many resources on immigration issues.
• Immigrant Resource Law Center The ILRC trains attorneys, paralegals, and community-based advocates who work with immigrants around the country. They inform the media, elected officials, and public to shape immigration policy and law.

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• Last Updated: Apr 18, 2024 12:03 PM
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U.S. immigration and immigrant information can be easily accessed from the online resources below. Partners of The ILC Public Education Institute such as Migration Policy Institute and Pew Research Center have developed interactive, detailed and extensive tools for users to source information by state, country of origin, characteristic and type. These include interactive maps, detailed tables, fast facts and more.

Immigration 101, Economics, Humanitarian Protection and more

The American Immigration Council  in Washington, D.C. provides research and fact sheets around a number of topics, including Immigration 101, Immigration Raids, Economics of Immigration, Immigration Reform, and Business and the Workplace. 

Democratizing Data Initiative

The Center for Migration Studies began the Democratizing Data Initiative to make demographic data on immigrants more widely available to a variety of users. Estimates include naturalization-eligible and undocumented immigrant population data at national, state and sub-state levels. Information is presented through interactive data tools, tables, charts and publications.

Migration Policy Institute 's Immigration Data Hub showscases the most current national and state-level demographic, social and economic facts about immigrants to the U.S. Track historical immigration trends, see which global cities have the largest immigrant populations and learn more about refugee and asylum patterns.

Migration Information Source

Migration Policy Institute's  online journal provides authoritative data and analysis of global trends. Easily accessible are frequently requested statistics on immigration as well as profiles of more than 70 countries. 

Local Immigrant Profiles

These profile sheets on select U.S. cities disseminate local data regarding the economic and social characteristics of immigrant populations.  Local Immigrant Profiles neatly visualize and summarize vital statistics on immigrants such as age, educational attainment and economic prosperity for 12 cities across the United States. Besides seeing data on the contributions of immigrants, you can also request the Institute for Immigration Research for a fact sheet on your own city.

Interactive maps from New American Economy provide immigrant data on the U.S. state, district and city geographic levels. Topics covered for each geographic level include demographics, workforce, voting power, home ownership, taxes and spending power, and entrepreneurship. The map also features a search option where users can enter an adderss, district, city or lawmaker's name to locate data specified by those areas.

Mapping Immigrant Professional Integration

IMPRINT ’s interactive maps showcase the most current state-level programs, services, demographics and legislation relevant to the professional integration of foreign-trained immigrants and refugees in the United States. They were produced in support of policymakers, practitioners and advocates working to help immigrants and refugees transition into careers that match their skills and experience.

Pew Research Center , one of the most reputable immigration research institutions in the United States, offers the datasets from each of its surveys available to the researchers free-of-charge. There are also searchable maps, survey questions and election results.

IssueLab: Immigration

The  IssueLab ,   as a service of the Foundation Center, collects immigration-related publications from more than 400 organizations into a searchable archive. Topics include programming and strategies to provide services for immigrants, migrants, and refugees, advocacy and public policy work to protect and promote migrant rights, and more.

State Immigration Project

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Immigration Research Initiative is a national partner in the State Immigration Project, together with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, National Immigration Law Center, and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

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Immigrant Stories helps people tell, share, and preserve personal and family immigration stories. Use this website and create a digital story: a 3-5 minute video made from your own photos, text, and audio. You tell your own story in your own words. Simply follow our instructions and video tutorials. We'll show you how to write a story, record a voiceover, and put your video together. Immigrant Stories is run by the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), where we've studied immigration for over fifty years. We share and preserve these digital stories for future generations through the IHRC Archives and the Digital Public Library of America. We created this website with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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I want to lead, i want to learn, register for the newsletter, resource library, budget, deficits, and debt, demographics, defense and national security, other programs, retirement security, taxes and revenues, infographics, you are here, immigration and tomorrow’s elderly, working paper*, mar 15, 2019.

It is well-known that the U.S. population is aging. The Census Bureau predicts that there will be about 32 million Americans aged 80 and up in 2050, 2.6 times today’s number. In this project, we consider the implications of the coming demographic shift for caregiving labor, and the role immigration policy plays in the future of caregiving. We focus on eight occupations including nursing occupations and service jobs that might help elderly individuals age in place, such as housekeeping. Using the results from a cross-metropolitan area study, we show that metropolitan areas with a larger elderly population have disproportionate employment in caregiving occupations. We use these findings to predict that there will be substantial increases in these key occupations by 2050, representing a growth from 8.4 percent to 12 percent of the total workforce. We also document that the foreign-born are disproportionately represented in these caregiving occupations. Significant increases in the foreign-born population will be needed to maintain the current foreign-born representation in key caregiving occupations as the population ages. Immigration policy has important implications for the cost and quality of care that the elderly will receive in 2050.

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Kristin Butcher

Kirstin Butcher is Professor of Economcs and Chair of the Economics Department at Wellesley College. Kristin's research primarily focuses on the impact of immigration on the United States and the causes of childhood obesity in this country. Her work encompasses the impact of immigration on labor market outcomes for U.S. natives, as well as the impact of immigration on crime in the United States. Kristin's work on childhood obesity examines links between school policies and children's health. Other research includes evaluating the impact of various higher education programs on student outcomes.

Tara Watson

Tara Watson is Professor of Economics and Chair of the Program in Public Health at Williams College, where she has taught since 2004. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan from 2007 to 2009, and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis in the U.S. Treasury's Office of Economic Policy from 2015 to 2016. Professor Watson's research focuses on immigration, health economics, and the social safety net. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

*This working paper was made possible by the US 2050 project, supported by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors.

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How these Northeastern researchers are rewriting the immigration-crime narrative

 Northeastern’s Ramiro Martinez and Jacob Stowell say their research over the past three decades has disproved mistaken assertions that immigration exposes American communities to increases in crime.

When Ramiro Martinez began his study of Latino crime in the United States 30 years ago, he thought he knew what to expect.

“I assumed that places that had more immigrants would have more homicides,” says Martinez, a Northeastern University professor of sociology, criminology and criminal justice. “That was the [common] assumption at that time point in the ’80s and ’90s.

“And so when we started looking at that first run of data, I thought there was something wrong.”

The data showed that immigrants — legal and illegal — were having a positive effect on their communities. Those findings are collected in his book, “ Latino Homicide: Immigration, Violence, and Community .”

“We found something that was opposite to what we thought,” Martinez says. “We found that more Latinos meant less violence in many communities across the United States.” 

Martinez and his Northeastern colleague Jacob Stowell , who rank among the leading experts in the field, say their research over the past three decades has disproved assertions that immigration exposes American communities to increases in crime.

“There aren’t a whole lot of things in my understanding that are the complete opposite of what people believe,” Stowell, a Northeastern associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, says of the immigration debate. “This is one of them.”

The ongoing migrant crisis on the Mexico border is helping feed the polarized U.S. debate over immigration, Stowell says. Criticisms are often tied to sensational crimes .

“Those crimes are heartbreaking and they are tragic,” Stowell says. “They also are the exception to the rule.”

Immigration revitalization hypothesis

Stowell says his research on the relationship between immigration and crime was inspired in no small part by his experiences growing up in San Diego.

“Generally there was a negative impression about immigration and its consequences socially,” he says.

In college, Stowell was employed as a waiter and many of his co-workers were immigrants.

“The folks that I worked with were hardworking and family oriented,” he says. “Some of them were working two full-time jobs. The public sentiment didn’t correspond with what I was seeing and my own belief.”

In 2009, Stowell published landmark research that found immigration was contributing significantly to the reduction in crime that the U.S. has been experiencing since the 1990s — a “great crime drop” that is continuing for a third straight decade .

Stowell’s findings were featured years later in a segment on “The Daily Show.”

Difficult to count population reliably

Are immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally more likely to commit crime than those who arrive by legal means? Stowell acknowledges that this issue has been problematic for scholars.

“It is very difficult to count this population reliably,” Stowell says of undocumented immigrants. “The Census, for example, is charged with counting the number of people in the country but does not ask about legal status, which makes it difficult research-wise.”

Using other analytical techniques, however, Stowell says researchers have found that the positive dynamic remains true regardless of how immigrants enter the U.S.

“The picture is generally the same: It appears to be the story that more immigration of any kind — legal or otherwise — is tied to lower levels of crime,” Stowell says. “There is no compelling empirical evidence that [illegal] immigration is positively associated with crime.”

The research efforts of Martinez and Stowell have been in line with studies by fellow scholars affirming the positives of immigration . The painstaking work requires data from the U.S. census to be matched with neighborhood crime reports. 

‘The exception to the rule’

Stowell says the anti-immigrant language of today echoes back throughout U.S. history.

“The things people used to be saying about Polish immigrants are the same things they’re saying today about Latino immigrants,” Stowell says, citing previous anti-immigration rhetoric that scapegoated Germans, Italians, Irish and other ethnicities. 

“There’s a supplanting of one group with another when people start talking about things like the undoing of the fabric of America at its core,” he says. “These broadly based statements get a lot of traction because of their grandiosity and not because of their substance.”

Stowell says it’s important to note the difference between first-generation immigrants and their offspring who are raised in the U.S. culture.

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“For the children of immigrants, their [criminal] patterns look much different from immigrants — they look more like the patterns of native-born Americans,” Stowell says. “In this sense becoming more American means becoming more criminal.

“And then the third generation — the grandchildren of immigrants — is indistinguishable from other groups,” Stowell says of their likelihood to commit crime. “I think a lot of times that folks conflate ethnicity and nativity, as if these two things are interchangeable. And the research is very clear on this point: Nativity and ancestry are not the same.”

Need for immigrants’ skills

The truth about immigration was hard to come by when Martinez was beginning his research three decades ago in the pre-digital era.

“This is something I did by hand — in the 1990s we didn’t have access to the laptops and scanners that we have today,” Martinez says. “I had to go into police departments and print information out on departmental copiers and carry some of that information back.”

The breakthrough in Martinez’s understanding came in Florida, a nexus of Latino immigration.

“I was fortunate to get access to the city of Miami[-Dade] Police Department and then it just took on a life of its own,” Martinez says of his research. 

Martinez is now extending his study back to the 1950s and beyond. 

“It was during that period [after World War II] in which we started to see the public recognizing that there were large Mexican-American communities and Puerto Rican communities across the United States, as well as the initial growth of the Cuban influx into Miami,” Martinez says.

Positive trends of immigration

Martinez says he finds the positive trends of immigration holding steady as he goes back in time.

“We are still seeing the clear and consistent effect that more immigration means less crime — and especially less homicide — in places where Latinos live and in places where we do have crime,” Martinez says. “It’s clear and consistent that we do not see higher levels of violence in those areas where immigrants have moved into.”

The U.S. needs immigration, Martinez says.

“Immigrants stabilize communities,” Martinez says. “If you look at people who work in low-skilled positions — if we’re talking about picking crops or working in slaughterhouses — those are skills that immigrants have developed over time that most Americans don’t have. Americans don’t want to work in those types of occupations. The immigrants we refer to as ‘lower skilled’ are important and vital to the United States and our everyday lives.”

Ian Thomsen is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at [email protected] . Follow him on X/Twitter @IanatNU .

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UC Irvine-led study examines the effect of restrictive immigration policies on women

Findings highlight the experiences of Mexican-born women living in Detroit

• Publication date August 2, 2024

Recent research has shown that immigration policies – often viewed as forms of structural racism – affect the social, economic, and health prospects for Latiné communities in the United States. In the past decade, there has been an increase in restrictive immigration policies from both political parties, which can substantially impact the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. This issue has made its way into the 2024 Presidential election and campaign messages, suggesting that these exclusionary policies might become even stricter depending on the results of the November election.

In a study published in the Journal BMC Public Health , corresponding author, Alana LeBrón, PhD, associate professor of health, society, and behavior at the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, examined how Mexican-born women living in Detroit navigate restrictive immigration policies that hinder access to health-promoting resources and care for their well-being.

LeBrón and the team found that the women reported facing a complex network of lengthy processes that used racial markers to determine their legal status and eligibility for health-promoting resources. Due to these racialized assumptions, many women faced difficulties in proving their eligibility for healthcare and other services, which added stress and uncertainty to their lives. 

The team conducted in-depth interviews with 48 Mexican-born women in Detroit, who were either first-generation immigrants, those who came to the U.S. as children, or second-generation immigrants. The interviews took place in 2013-2014 and were conducted in either English or Spanish, depending on the participants’ preferences. The interviews were held at community-based organizations or other convenient locations for the participants to ensure these conversations were conducted in a safe and trusting environment.

Our findings underscore the strength and resourcefulness of Mexican-origin women in the face of structural violence and exclusionary policies.” – Alana LeBrón, MS, PhD

“Given the current hostile climate around immigration policies and their impacts on Latiné communities, we thought it was important to revisit these data sets with a lens towards individual and collective strategies to care for themselves, family, and community,” said LeBron who also has an appointment with the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences. “We hope these findings will help us to move beyond uni-directional assessments of impacts of exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies.” 

The study found that despite these difficulties, the individual and collective strategies employed by Mexican-born women to combat racism and protect their right to access essential health services include maintaining access to resources, limiting labeling and stigmatization, mitigating adverse impacts of immigrant policing, and strengthening their social networks.

“Our findings underscore the strength and resourcefulness of Mexican-origin women in the face of structural violence and exclusionary policies,” LeBrón said. “Whether it was their advocacy for themselves and their families, understanding their legal rights, or leaning on their social networks, the women in Detroit showcased a diverse array of strategies.”    

This research is particularly relevant given the current climate of anti-immigrant rhetoric and increasingly restrictive immigration policies. The study highlights the intricate relationship between immigration policies, social networks, and access to health resources. It emphasizes the need for inclusive policies that promote the health of immigrant communities.

Additional authors include Amy J. Schulz and Barbara A. Israel from the University of Michigan; and Cindy Gamboa, Angela Reyes, and Edna Viruell-Fuentes from the University of Illinois.

This research was supported by the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health (CRECH); Rackham Graduate School; Transportation Research Institute; Center for the Education of Women; Institute for Research on Women and Gender, National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R-25-058641), and the NIH Loan Repayment Program.

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How is immigration affecting the economy? In a good way, data suggest

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• Takeaways from The Times’ analysis of the economic impact of immigration.
• Inside the life of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada before his capture.
• Here are the 70 best hikes in L.A.
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Unpacking the data on immigration and the economy

As the U.S. election cycle ramps up, immigration remains a key battlefront for state and national races.

Donald Trump’s message remains virtually unchanged since his now-infamous speech that launched his first presidential campaign in 2015. By his account, immigrants are taking jobs from U.S.-born citizens and “ poisoning the blood of our country .” More recently, he claimed they’re taking “Black jobs,” a term he clarified this week as “ anybody who has a job .”

He blames the recent surge in immigration on Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who was tasked by President Biden with addressing some root causes of migration from Central American countries. That led to her much maligned “ do not come ” moment, plus ongoing scrutiny of her White House performance and immigration policies.

There’s no shortage of anecdotes, caveats and Hitler-esque rhetoric about the effect immigration is having on the U.S. But what do the data show?

Times reporter Don Lee sought to answer that question, examining recent federal and state data to understand the effects on the labor market and economy. His examination reveals a much more positive outlook than Trump and other conservatives are painting.

“The surge of international migrants since 2021… has lifted the U.S. and California economies by filling otherwise vacant jobs, helping to keep job creation strong, growing businesses and pumping millions of tax dollars into state, local and federal coffers,” Don wrote this week , adding:

“Without immigration, California’s workforce would have fallen well short of its needs, especially since the high cost of living, soaring home prices and other factors have fueled a notable outflow of population from the state.”

Here are three key takeaways from Don’s findings.

California’s labor market relies considerably on immigrants

OK, that probably isn’t too surprising in a state where more than a quarter of residents are foreign-born . Immigrant workers fill the ranks of major state industries including agriculture, construction, healthcare and hospitality.

Based on a Times analysis of 2022 Census Bureau data, foreign-born Californians make up:

• One-third of all restaurant and warehouse workers
• About 40% of home healthcare and child day-care workers
• Nearly 50% of workers at trucking and lodging businesses
• 60% of workers in landscaping and janitorial services

Looking at employers’ data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Don noted that more than 70% of the new jobs added in the state between June 2022 and June 2024 were in two sectors: social assistance (including health services for the elderly and child care) and leisure and hospitality, (mostly hotels and restaurants).

That comes amid a notable loss of private-sector jobs in California , which has an overall unemployment rate of 5.2% — the highest in the nation.

Immigration is a net positive for the U.S. bottom line, feds say

Don noted the “short-term public costs” of increased immigration, such as education and health services.

“Many agree the current immigration system is flawed and chaotic,” he wrote. “But from a budgetary perspective, the additional federal spending on immigrants is projected to pale next to the increase in revenues from the millions more people working, paying taxes and buying goods and services, according to the Congressional Budget Office.”

Researchers also say more immigrants generating payroll taxes could ease the strain on the nation’s Social Security and Medicare systems.

Immigrants aren’t taking jobs from U.S.-born workers, research shows

Despite the political talking points, studies show immigration does not have a significant negative effect on wages and employment for native-born U.S. workers.

Don pointed to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research in April, which found that immigrants’ participation in the labor market between 2000 and 2019 has benefited non-college-educated native-born workers in terms of wages and led to “no significant wage effect on college educated natives.”

“Even simulations for the most recent 2019-2022 period suggest small positive effects on wages of non-college natives and no significant crowding out effects on employment,” the study’s authors wrote.

Many of the jobs recent immigrants are taking are physically demanding and don’t pay enough to attract many native-born Americans. There is a growing labor movement advocating for better conditions and wages for many of those workers, as I reported in yesterday’s newsletter .

California has another issue: There are more jobs being added than there are U.S. citizens reaching working age. As the workforce ages and birth rates drop, many experts see immigrants as vital to keeping the economy healthy.

“Our nation desperately needs people,” Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at the L.A-based research firm Beacon Economics, told Don. “People have stopped having babies, and so many are going into retirement. And here we really have an opportunity to help our economy in the long run, and we are turning away from it.”

You can read Don’s full story here .

Today’s top stories

Rent prices

• Public pension money is being used to raise rents in California.
• Here’s how we reported the story .
• A new limit on rent increases takes effect today .
• The secretive life — and stunning downfall — of Sinaloa cartel boss ‘El Mayo’ Zambada.
• ‘El Mayo’ Zambada’s lawyer says his client was ‘forcibly kidnapped’ by son of ‘El Chapo’
• Here’s how the U.S. caught ‘El Mayo,’ the Sinaloa cartel’s top boss.
• A California family lost one home to wildfire in 2018 — and a second in 2024 . ‘What are the odds?’
• As the massive Park fire marches into the history books, firefighters face hurdles to slowing it down
• Another heat wave and more thunderstorms will raise the risk of more wildfires in California
• Four Rottweiler puppies and their mother were rescued from the Park fire and flown to safety in helicopter.

Paris Olympics

• Follow our live coverage from Paris and access today’s TV schedule .
• Extreme weather hits Paris, highlighting Olympics’ vulnerability to climate change .
• Olympic breakout star Ilona Maher aims to shatter stereotypes about female athletes.
• U.S. lacked talent and was lazy? No, Simone Biles trolls MyKayla Skinner after team won gold.
• For U.S. soccer, a winning hand thus far in both Olympic tournaments. What comes next?

Courts and crime

• L.A. gang interventionists got better pay. They’re still searching for respect.
• Huw Edwards, former BBC presenter, pleads guilty to making indecent images of children.
• A chiropractor’s hidden camera may have photographed 20 patients in a restroom, lawsuit claims.
• L.A. council members drop plan for $2 million in security grants for religious institutions.
• Harvey Weinstein may be extradited to California after Newsom signs warrant.
• Disney television unit hit with 140 layoffs , including cuts at National Geographic.
• ‘Halo’ and ‘Destiny 2’ video game studio to lay off 17% of its workforce .

More big stories

• How much does your city know about you? This Southern California city opens up.
• Trump, in contentious interview with Black journalists, questions Kamala Harris’ Black identity .
• UC President Drake to step down after managing pandemic, policing, protests, budget woes.
• State Water Project supplies could fall up to 23% within 20 years due to climate change.
• Secret shoppers find long waits and scarce openings in L.A. for psychiatric care with Medicaid.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here .

Commentary and opinions

• Editorial: Can California save local news? The future of community, democracy is at stake.
• Tracy Brown and Greg Braxton: NBC’s Olympic obsession with celebrities is a little cringe.
• Editorial: Supreme Court term limits and ethics reforms aren’t just good for Democrats.
• Anita Chabria : Trump offended his Black audience. Mistake or part of the plan ?

Today’s great reads

They run California’s oldest Chinese restaurant. Can they retire if it means closing down? Paul and Nancy Fong were delighted when their family diner was designated the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in California. But that celebrity status has complicated their hard-earned dreams for retirement.

Other great reads

• Emily White was dragged for predicting the future of music streaming 12 years ago. Where is she now?
• Is it ever OK to tell your friend to break up with their partner ?

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected] .

For your downtime

• ⛰️ The 70 best hikes in L.A.
• 🍽️ How far for a true taste of Baja? To the center of this modern Mexican tasting menu.
• 🛍️ Gamer Tiffany Herrera shares L.A.’s best 5 Latino-owned businesses
• 🥟🥡 The best places to eat and drink in L.A. this month , according to our food writers.
• 📚10 books to add to your reading list in August .
• 📺 Paris Olympics TV schedule : Friday’s listings
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for berry pavlova with vanilla whipped cream and pistachios .
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games .

And finally ... from our archives

On this day in history, the 11th Summer Olympic Games opened in Berlin. The success of African American athletes, particularly Jesse Owens, undermined the efforts by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to show off their regime and the superiority of the “Aryan race” to the rest of the world.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter Defne Karabatur, fellow Christian Orozco, assistant editor Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories , topics and the latest articles on latimes.com .

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Ryan Fonseca writes the Los Angeles Times’ Essential California newsletter. A lifelong SoCal native, he has worked in a diverse mix of newsrooms across L.A. County, including radio, documentary, print and television outlets. Most recently, he was an associate editor for LAist.com and KPCC-FM (89.3) public radio, covering transportation and mobility. He returns to The Times after previously working as an assistant web editor for Times Community News, where he helped manage the websites and social media presence of the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press and La Cañada Valley Sun. Fonseca studied journalism at Cal State Northridge, where he now teaches the next generation of journalists to develop their voice and digital skills.

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Resources for Undocumented Students Searching for Experiences

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Undocumented students may feel additional stress when searching for jobs, internships, and other experiences to complement their studies.

Here are a few resources that may be helpful with your search:

Dream Summer is an annual national fellowship of the UCLA Labor Center’s Dream Resource Center (DRC) . Through Dream Summer, the DRC has provided over 800 fellowship opportunities to immigrant youth and allies and has partnered with over 265 social justice organizations across the country. Fellows are placed within social justice-based host organizations and work closely with their host organization to incorporate and strengthen the role of immigrant rights issues alongside the organization’s social justice work. Over the summer, fellows engage and lead social justice efforts by aligning the call for immigrant rights alongside the unique challenges of queer and transgender communities; Asian and Pacific Islander communities; Black immigrant communities; the ongoing mass incarceration and criminalization of people of color; worker rights; COVID-19 relief efforts and post-COVID-19 economic recovery efforts; and health care access for all.

Additionally, Dream.org has a Climate Career Pathways Scholarship Fund . Climate change is an undeniable reality, requiring immediate and sustained action. They believe in creating pathways for untapped talent to pioneer green innovation, foster sustainable development, and mitigate the impacts of climate change. As part of that commitment, they are launching the Climate Career Pathways Scholarship Fund, investing in future leaders of the Climate and Sustainability sectors by providing up to $3,500 in scholarships for trainings, courses and professional certifications in these fields. Also check out their other opportunities .

Check out this list of Summer Research Programs in STEM for Undocumented and DACA Undergraduates .

The 1,000 dreams scholarship provides one-time educational assistance for women currently enrolled in a US high school or a two-year or four-year college/university. This scholarship is not to fund tuition, but the intention is to provide access to educational opportunities beyond tuition, such as educational conferences, instructional programs related to creative or artistic pursuits, graduate exam application fees, or textbooks. All women enrolled in a US based institution can apply regardless of citizenship.

Immigrants Rising has many helpful resources, including:

• a list of fellowships and scholarships not requiring US Citizenship
• Life After College Guide
• Working For Yourself Guide
• Career Pathways for Undocumented Students With and Without Work Authorization: Income Generation
• 5 Reasons Undocumented Immigrants Should Go into Tech
• Graduate & Professional School: Pathways & Support Systems

We hope these resources are helpful. Visit MCS and meet with an advisor to determine the best strategy for your own unique path.